interview by Sasa BIZIC
NOVI REPORTER: How come Miroslav Mikes, Dragutin Ilic and Tihomir Gligoric did not participate in the most recent election campaign of the SP? Is that related to their participation in the founding of the Movement for Changes, organization that is supposed to be a new favorite of the West in the forthcoming general elections in BH?
DJOKIC: These were local elections and we decided within the party that our people offer support to campaigns in those municipalities in Srpska where they live. Mr. Gligoric was very active in Doboj, and Mr. Ilic in Banja Luka, as well as in Laktasi and Srbac. Mr. Mikes was busy with personal obligations and he informed us that consequently he would not be able to participate in the election campaign. I am convinced that activities of any one of our party officials in the Movement for Changes will not imply their abandonment of the SP. They joined the Movement for Changes because they want to support changes that should take place on the level of BH, but they are primarily members of the SP. I can confidently state that for Mr. Gligoric, as a deputy president, Mr Ilic and possibly a few others, who may have turned up at those meetings. I am totally confident that they will remain with the SP in the future as well.
Is it true that Miroslav Mikes has left the SP?
Mr. Mikes has informed us that due to reasons of personal nature he cannot remain a member of the SP in the future. That is his personal decision. We have accepted it and it will be dealt with at the next meeting of the Chief Board. I cannot see why that decision would cause any trouble within the party.
Both in the regular and repeated local elections in Zvornik, chief opponent of the joint candidate of the SP and another six parties for the mayor of Zvornik, Budimir Acimovic, was deputy president of the Democratic People's Alliance (DNS) Hadzi Jovan Mitrovic. Is it not a contradiction that at the local level you've initiated a fierce fight with a man who is, nominally, your partner at the level of the Republic of Srpska?
Zvornik is a specific region, where different interests are intertwined. At issue there are not only personnel problems, but also different political concepts. In Zvornik we've had essential differences in the vision of the future administration of municipality. We have very clearly emphasized the difference between our vision and that of the current municipal administration, mostly embodied by Mr. Mitrovic. We were successful in proving that their policies were unsuccessful. We have been frequently criticized because of the profile of political parties that supported our candidate Budimir Acimovic, because some of them support the government of Srpska, while the SP is in opposition, but we simply could not prevent them from supporting Mr. Acimovic. he is most definitely one of most distinguished residents of Zvornik and he is prepared to place his capabilities in service of the necessary changes in that municipality, in an attempt to pull Zovrnik out of the paws of criminals. There are numerous examples of abuse in Zvornik and I do not understand why the chief auditor of Srpska hasn't conducted an audit of the local government in Zvornik. Also, in Zovrnik the [Bosniak] Party of Democratic Action (SDA) has become a dominant partner of the DNS in the local government. We do not want to cooperate with a rigidly nationalist party such as the SDA at any level of government. Since Mr. Mitrovic in Zvornik relied on the support of the SDA and a few other Bosniak political parties, we had to part ways politically. I am convinced that problems between the SP and the DNS in Zvornik will not jeopardize our cooperation in other parts of Sprksa, as the DNS also needs political partners.
Another SP candidate, Branko Barac, was elected mayor of Kozarska Dubica, with support of the SNSD and the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP). Could that case serve as an example for the future cooperation of these three political forces in the Srpska parliament?
As far as Dubica is concerned, it is positive that political parties that essentially are strongly democratic in nature have come together and established cooperation. In principle, I do not see anything problematic in the cooperation between the SP and the PDP, but we did not accept to cooperate with the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) through the PDP. The SP accepts cooperation with the PDP. We need to renew that sort of dialog, but, of course, the PDP must denounce its policies from the past and especially abandon its cooperation with the SDS. Dubica demonstrated that that was possible. I think that that will be beneficial for the citizens of Dubica, and will also be a good example for the future. The leadership of political parties must be prepared to accept suggestions and demands from our people in the field. In Dubica there was a need for a change in policy. The SDS was a dominant force there since 1990 and people had enough of their futile policies. There was a lot of crime, the municipality effectively stagnated and it makes sense that voters opted for changes.
Why have the SP and other opposition parties backed off their demands for an early general election after the local poll?
Three months before the local elections we definitively realized that a much wider consensus in Srpska and BH is needed to call early general elections, including the very important influence of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) on the electoral process. It is obvious that there was no readiness to support our demands. We believe that early elections at this point would not result in big changes, as new regular elections must be called anyway within a year and a half. Our condition for participating in early elections was that the new parliament and government stay in power for four years. That much is needed to achieve something, while in two years it would be difficult to achieve results. We haven't given up our demand that general elections be called. We are convinced that we would achieve even better results than in the local elections and that the current administration would be defeated. But it seems other parties are not prepared to support our demands. Above all, the president of Srpska has to call early elections, while at the BH level we would need a change in the election law.
What is your opinion regarding the proposal for the future organization of the public safety sector adopted by the Commission for the Reform of Police in BH?
All of us together must seek organization of the ministry of internal affairs that will make sure that those services are as efficient and functional as possible. The existing organization of the Srpska Ministry of Internal Affairs (Police) can be described as non-functional, as a system that so far hasn't been sufficiently efficient. That means that certain internal reforms are needed regarding the overall organization, including numerous changes in the personnel in various segments of the Srpska police. As far as the general approach to the reform in the security system, I think that representatives of our institutions have gone pretty far in contacts with representatives of the international community and other sides in BH in the direction of the model that is currently being discussed. They failed to realize that their acceptance of such discussions would be interpreted as their tacit approval. That above all applies to the president of Srpska, Prime Minister of Srpska, and especially the former president of the Parliament of Srpska, because of the very specific role of Mr. Dragan Kalinic in political and social processes. They took a wrong approach, as that issue should have first been addressed within competent institutions such as the parliament of Srpska, so that we could see what concept of security sector reform we need. The Republic of Srpska needs public security sector that would be organized in the manner that would provide efficient protection of property, personal safety of citizens, public order and peace, and would be in the function of the protection of the constitutional order. In the past numerous functions of the Srpska police from the latter categories were transferred to the country (BH) level, as is testified by the authorities of institutions such as the State Border Service (DGS), Information and Security Agency (OSA) and the State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA). Consequently, the Srpska Police bas become a rather shaky and bare-bone institution. Today, de facto the entity police is only in charge of the public safety in Srpska. Now, we are witnessing a frontal assault with the goal of taking that authority as well, and creating a new centralized organization at the country level.
Can such an assault be prevented?
That question deeply affects political relations in BH and constitutional matters. Political consensus is needed, especially in Srpska, and in my opinion in BH as well. It must be accepted that the Republic of Srpska should remain as an entity in BH and have its clearly defined functions and jurisdiction, including obligations and rights. My impression is that over the last year we were asleep in Srpska regarding a new hot topic - constitutional reform. In the meantime others, in the Federation BH and some Bosniak political parties have been working hard on that topic. Last year, in November, I opened the painful and difficult issue of constitutional reform. I did that in order to insert a dose of seriousness into our political scene and to point out that there are certain intentions. The basic task of all of us active in politics is to predict what will happen in the future and react accordingly. I predicted and reacted, received a lot of criticism, but the current developments confirm that I was right, as we can witness clear tendencies to uncritical approach to the constitutional reform. There are demands from the international circles, as well as political circles in BH that Srpska totally redefine its basic political views. However, that cannot be done by any single institution in the republic or any individual, but only by the people, all three nations that live in Srpska, upon which the sovereignty of the Republic of Srpska rests.
Is Branko Damjanac a member of the SP?
Yes, he is.
As a member of the Commission for the Reorganization of Police, he stated that Brcko should be one of the regional centers of the future Ministry of Internal Affairs (Police) of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Does that mean that Damjanac is already prejudging solutions and talking about the situation in which there will be no entity police forces?
The model of organization offered by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Srpska, Mr. Darko Matijasevic, is optimal and satisfies the essential demands - possibility to engage in the reform of the public security sector while at the same time keeping entity jurisdiction in this sector. I think that his proposal is balanced. That proposal also envisages that Brcko District also keep its own police force. Brcko is today a separate center in BH, enjoying both legislative and executive powers. Therefore, it makes sense, as Mr. Damjanac proposed, that Brcko also be treated as an important security center, which among other requires development of additional services for the control of a heavily used border crossing. Similarly, it has already been agreed that SIPA and the intelligence service will open regional offices in Brcko. Consequently, Mr. Damjanac in that sense pointed out that Brcko should get status of a center that would unify and improve coordination of the abovementioned services in the District. If his proposal went in that direction, I believe that it is totally rational and in agreement with the official proposal from the Republic of Srpska.
At the most recent session of the Parliament of Srpska, High Representative Paddy Ashdown said that he "did not know what would happen with the Republic of Srpska" if the Republic does not establish full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal by the end of the year. Should we expect more radical consequences than already customary dismissals of politicians?
I believe that the institutions of the Republic of Srpska have totally underestimated the importance of fulfilling their international obligations. Out of all those obligations, there's been most insistence on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. That is a very complex and painful issue, but, if the Republic of Srpska wants credibility, it must be aware of the obligations it took upon itself by adopting the Cooperation With the Hague Tribunal Act. Consequently, it must be prepared to fulfill that obligation, and all institutions of Srpska must show a lot more activity in that sense. I appeal that they do so, regardless of possible reactions that, above all have to do with insufficient understanding of the obligations of the Republic of Srpska in international affairs. Ultimately, a long time ago Srpska had to face the question - whether war crimes took place in its territory or not. If war crimes did take place, and it is obvious they did, we had to organize war crimes trials here. Had we done that eight years ago, or even last year, today the image of Srpska would be totally different. There would not be attempts to collectivize responsibility, which is present as a perception in international relations, nor would there be an understanding that the Republic of Srpska is a creation built on war crimes. One cannot but wonder about the responsibility of people who led Srpska during the war, as well as in the post-war period. They should have behaved far more responsibly and we would have avoided the relentless pressure we have today. We must understand that in the international circles people are not interested in minute details of local developments, definitely not to the extent we are. Consequently, we are sometimes incredibly surprised by perhaps superficial approach of certain international representatives with respect to us. However, for the most part, we must look for our own mistakes and correct them. We should not dismiss anything said by international representatives, either in their official or unofficial capacity. Similarly, the most recent address by Mr. Ashdown should be taken seriously and adequate conclusions should be drawn from it.